Please post your reflections to the readings in Module 2 Here:
Ben Dulin
Do you think that the research about "teachers teach how they have been taught” is true? How has this impacted your teaching and classroom? What changes will you have to make in your classrooms to embrace new types of learning for your 21st century students?
1. Description. “involves recalling your experiences such as class activities, textbook readings, and school involvement”
I have had a typical education in a country setting at a local public school. I was in the same school, Chippewa Local Schools, for my K-12 education. I graduated from High School and signed up for classes immediately at Wayne College, a branch of The University of Akron for the core classes. I dropped out after a year and a half because I wanted to serve in the Coast Guard but they did not accept me due to an injury I had in High School so I signed back up for classes and continued my classes at Wayne then Akron to become an Early Childhood Education teacher. I got a job with Nordonia City Schools teaching third grade and after a couple of years teaching I went back to The University of Akron to pursue my Master’s degree in Instructional Technology.
2. Impact. “You comment on what you learned from each experience”
I was taught by professionals who had a range of personalities and teaching styles. Upon reflection of my K-12 education, I can recall all of my teachers but a few. When I try to reflect on “What was their pedagogy at the time?” I am having difficulties. I do not think that it was too often shared with me and I therefore assumed that they were just following along in the text book curriculum as I was asked too. There are some teachers who stood out to me; some good and some not. My Kindergarten teacher was one of the nicest teachers I have had. She always made you feel welcomed and said nice things to you but had organization and purposeful tasks for us to do. I remember one of my third grade teachers was developing a math rap cassette at the time and she would let us listen to them in class. I did not think that it helped me with my math facts but I thought it was cool. We had a teacher in middle school that would walk out of the class when we were taking tests and leave the answer sheet on the desk. One of the “bad” girls in our class went up there and read out the answers. I didn’t want to cheat but I wasn’t going to leave an answer wrong.
Then high school…, I guess I have the most memories of pedagogy from high school since I had more teachers, I was older and more aware, and it was the most recent. My Dad was one of my teachers in high school and life and his materials seemed rough but his pedagogy was strong. He always modeled the Socratic Method; so much so, that it was annoying because he would never give you a plain answer. He was always requiring you to think out your thoughts and come to your own conclusions. I also remember a teacher who said I would not graduate unless I was in her plays. I thought she was joking but wasn’t sure so I signed up for her play a quiet and shy student and eventually became comfortable talking in front of people. I do not remember too much from her English class but I will not forget Shakespeare class, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” nor “Guys and Dolls.” Her pedagogy was a passion and love for what she was doing and it was contagious. She believed in you and became a second mother to many of us. You knew she was sacrificing time from her family to be at play practice with us.
I also had two teachers that gave me a hard time because I was a teacher’s son and they would point it out as frequent as possible. I think they may have been joking but I found it hurtful at the time and as a result didn’t care for them or the classes. I also had a teacher that had us watch “Roots” for almost half a year to teach us about American History (not the best pedagogy in my opinion). I also found myself in a situation my senior year to take Calculus or have no math class since I had already met the requirements to graduate. I chose to be in Calculus and learn as much as I could even though I did not do well in Advanced Math because as I saw it I wasn’t going to use it as a profession. My teacher told me to drop the course because she didn’t think I could pass it. I explained to her what my idea was and she saw no value in my plan. I stayed in the course, learned some Calculus, got a D, and still haven’t used it ever again as I expected.
Wayne College was small and personal like going to Chippewa for high school. My botany course was really hands on and project based which made that a lot of fun. Accounting was horrible for me and I was confused on why. I am a good mathematician and I saw numbers and problems I could not solve. I talked to the professor and his response was that Accounting is normally hard for students who are good at math. That was the extent of the conversation I continued to struggle and as a result dropped the course. After I came back to school from my hiatus with the Coast Guard, I decided to be a teacher and wanted to work with young students who may need a positive male role model. Courses were going well and I was for the first time in college actually enjoying the content I was learning in regards to the theorists and psychology behind the learning process. My professors were passionate about what they were teaching and the pedagogy in one word was hands-on. I was in Akron Public Schools working with students practicing what I was learning which gave the material so much more weight and value. We also collaborated a lot in small groups and worked on projects. There was one professor who gave me some trouble and almost made me drop out. She told one of my classmates that she did not think I should be an Elementary teacher since I was a male. Her class was graded subjectively and I received a C-. I asked if there was anything I could do to boost my grade and I was told no so I had to retake the course.
I was practicing at Nordonia when I was going back to school for my Master’s degree. I was the technology advocate for my building and was really enjoying that aspect of my job so I decided to get my Master’s degree in Instructional Technology. I enjoy the content so much that the pedagogy of the instructors is not that important because I am intrinsically motivated to learn the content. I would say that Dr. Ward and Dr. Tsai have the program set-up very well and I have enjoyed working with them over the past couple of years. I have had some courses face-to-face, online, and blended so the pedagogy and resources have been drastically different in some of my courses. Dr. Ward shared some insight into her pedagogy when she told me to read until you get it. I have always been told to read page 1-20 so when I was first in her course I tried to read everything and watch all of the videos and explore all of the hyperlinks and it was a ton of work. I asked her about it and she said that would be a lot of reading and that she puts multiple resources up there to help different people learn and that I as a learner need to read until I understand and then I know I am done.
3. Intent. “Your intent should include how and when you will do what you want to do”
The reflection question was, “Do you think that the research about "teachers teach how they have been taught” is true? How has this impacted your teaching and classroom? What changes will you have to make in your classrooms to embrace new types of learning for your 21st century students?” I have reflected about the way that my teachers impacted my learning and life and would conclude that, yes teachers teach how they have been taught. We are a collection of all of the influences in our lives; good and bad. As you can hear from my reflection personal relationships has always been key to me in my education. When I felt like I was wronged, I would give up or not care as much. As a result, I incorporate personal connections into my pedagogy because I truly feel like a student will work for you if they know you care about them. I will also remember to not leave during a test and not expect my students to cheat nor show a TV series in my class and expect the students to take me seriously. Delivery of the content is the most important aspect of teaching but it is not the only. A holistic approach to educating a child or adult is the best.
I will continue to try and establish a positive relationship with my students while incorporating technology and collaboration into my lessons. Like my English teacher from high school, my students will hopefully enjoy learning that much more when they can see my excitement for technology bleed through my lessons.
I have found the module 2 discussion on online collaboration to be fascinating. I do not have any teaching experience but as I go through the modules, I am realizing that there are so many exciting methods to utilize to establish collaboration within online courses. I thhink that the difficult part is determining the most effective technological tools. From the discussions it seems that Elluminate is a tool that has been widely used by many of the students. Skype is another tool that peaked my interest and I intend to explore how it is used. The discussion board has proven t obe a powerful way for students t ocollaborate, which is the primary tool we use in the course. I found the readings to put stresses on how important it is for students to explore their roles when completing projects whether they be research or business projects. These were the examples used in the readings. Wit hthe experiences I have had, and some of the students confirmed similar issues..are when engaged in collaboration projects online, there seems to always be students that do not fulfill their roles within the project which makes things dificult for the others involved.
how do instructor's plan for this type of situation when a student drops out of a class, or just refuses to do the work. I have found that is it up t othe students to safeguard themselves. Some sort of face t oface shoul occur before commencing the project. Each person needs to be upfront about his or her limitations and abilities to be flexible or inflexible. This is key in the event that someone has to take on additional roles while doing the project so that the project can bbe competed sucessfully. Outside of potential pitfalls, online collaboration is exciting and it is transcending the academic realm and the collaboration tools are being used in the work places as well as so many students have attested to. For me, the challenge and anxiety is choosing the web tools and incorporating them into a real online environment.
James Bell
I have been a teacher for the past eight years. During that time, I have varied my teaching methods from direct instruction and lecture to inquiry-based learning, to independent projects, depending on the student makeup, the subject, and the chapter material. Sometimes after a lesson I could say to myself “that really worked well,” and sometimes after a lesson I would say “whew, I really need to change that next time!” It’s often hard to gauge what students actually learned from a lesson.
I especially like the article in the module 2 readings by Hurst and Thomas, Developing Team Skills and Accomplishing Team Projects Online. In the article, several examples of online teamwork and collaboration online are shown in detail. The authors quote Shrank (1997) who says that real learning occurs when one is thrown into the mix and has to “make decisions, solve problems, make mistakes and have access to an expert.” The online learning environment is one where a person can do this, and the article really explains the protocols around creating an effective collaboration between individuals.
I think it would be fascinating to create courses where online collaboration occurs between students who live in different parts of the world! For my future science classes I will use tools such as skype to communicate with a partner school. For example, we do a section on biomes. In the past, I would teach it out of the book, then do some online research. I think a great approach would be to connect with a school in say, the Amazon rainforest, and share learning about our different parts of the world. These readings by Palloff and Pratt, by Hurst and Thomas provide great information on how to go about structuring effective teams of online learners.
Jerry
Taking classes online was very new to me when I had started my bachelor never thinking I would of made it into the graduate program, but here I am. Act times I do feel alone in the online community, I use the syllabus like it was my best friend. Almost all of my classes has had a discussion board, which guided me when I was confused about something, many times I thought that I was alone. The discussion board show me that I was not the only one having problems. The teacher or the other students was right there to help me, and I help them as well. I love working from the comfort of my home, rather it be in pajamas, I could work at anytime of the night as long as I wish.
My classes I have learned how to deepen my learning and have a better understanding from my online classes, teacher and peers. I never knew this was team learning until I read the article "Learning Together in Community". I did not realize how much we help each other in our learning experiences. I did understand and knew about the elements of community, I have done this in obtaining both of my degrees, but I did not know it had this special name. The readings have taught me how important it is to be a part of a team, in the online environment learning atmosphere. How to have a successful team by knowing what to expect out of each person, like the time frame for each individuals because everyone time is important. The aritcles for this module is definitly a keeper that I will use in my online teaching experiences in the future. I like the idea of the three things to keep the research fun and upbeat
Celebrate success, plan for interaction and communicate about other than just the projects I will use this in my classroom or maybe see if I can use this tacit at work.
Melissa
While reading "Why Teams Work in Online Learning" I realized there is alot more to online learning and teaching than what I know. The virtual reality team study sounded very interesting as it put students into a real world experience where they had to figure things out for themselves. I think this would be a great tool, although would not be relevant for every learner. I noticed throughout the article/chapter that there were a lot of references as to how they would structure the discussions and team work, and therefore a lot of direction given to the students. I think this is very important with online learning especially in group settings. Students need to know what is expected of them and what they will need to do in order to be successful. Working with a group can be difficult for some people so the more direction given, the easier it will be to figure out how the group will work together. Another thing that really stood out to me was the idea of trust in team members. I never realized how important trust is until I started reading this, but it is true. In order to work together and feel comfortable with your group members you do have to trust them. You have to know they will complete their part of the work and attend the meetings. Without this, one person may feel like they are carrying another which can cause resentment and ultimately lead to feelings of frustration. A group that cannot get along, will not be successful.
While reading "Learning Together in Community: Collaboration online" I realized yet another important aspect of teams in online classes, social presence. The article states that working online can be lonely and students can feel disconnected. To help with this teachers can bring students together as teams and allow them to get to know each other even though they are not face to face. The social aspect of any class is very important and can make a student feel more comfortable with attending classes and learning. If the students are not put into groups they may not have a chance to really get to know one another. In getting to know each other the students learn more from each other. The idea of social presence seems to be one of the more important aspects of online learning. Interesting concepts and ideas to keep in mind for the future.
Andrea
Hussain Alkhaliaf Description In this module I have read articles and some materials about the dynamic nature of online collaborating, peer and small group work.
Impact When I was a teacher I tried to apply some teaching methods such as peer sharing and group work. I was trying to teach my students how to be collaborative team and I got good feedback. Honestly, I thought the collaborative team method only works with face-to- face classes. However, after reading the articles in this module and thinking about my situation as online learner, I found that I get every thing I need from my peers or my instructors. Moreover, I do believe that the online environment is very effective because students can connect in any place in any time. They will feel more responsible about their learning. Also, Learners can share their learning, thoughts and ideas. In fact, the new tools of technology help learners to be more effective and collaborative because most online environment tools are designed to meet most learners’ needs. For example, using Elluminate allowed students to chat, talk and share files. They can attend in public or private room any time and it is free.
Intent In the future, I will improve my students’ skills to be a collaborative worker and absolutely I will integrate the new online environments in my classroom. I will take advantage from these online environments to improve their learning.
Julia L. Cutler Description
In this module the focus was online collaboration. It is easy for a student to feel all alone when taking an online class and it’s important for instructors to create a feeling of community among students enrolled in the course. Impact After reading the article by Palloff & Pratt, I realized that it is my responsibility to create the online community for my students to engage in. The authors state, “…the instructor is responsible for creating the container through which it can happen effectively” (pg. 2). I had always done an online “ice breaker” at the beginning of the semester where each student introduced themselves on a discussion board but that’s as far as any type of discussion board went. After reading through the articles in this module, I realize that the use of discussion boards can go much farther in the courses that I am teaching. There are many times when students are struggling with something and they don’t have access to me or a computer lab on campus to get help. I think that discussion board usage for each unit that we cover will be a huge help. This will allow the more experienced student to help the student that is having problems which in turn enhances learning for both students. Intent
My plan for the future is to set up discussion boards for each unit. I am going to require that each student post something about that week’s lesson whether it be something new that they discovered or something that they had a problem with. This will open up discussion about the material covered and the students can learn from one another.
Marlean Ames
Description This module had a focus on collaberative work/learning introducing various online tools and the use of technology which can be used and applied when presenting information to learners as well as used in a way to bring an otherwise non f2f class together. Students listed a variety of tools on the discussion board that they were aware of or have used which turned out to be very informative. In review of the discussion board, it appears all classmates have had some experience with this type of tool. Some experiences by students were not quite as good as others at times. We we also afforded the opportunity to review some articles which also helped to spell out the uses of online collaboration for both the instructor and learner.
Impact The impact of this module for me was it gave me the opportunity to focus on building collaboration in classes. Being able to see the huge range of tools will certainly work in the future when planning courses or trainings of my own. Reading about the impact collaborative learning and work has on the students/learners and the value it can add to online/blended learning was great. Although at this point in my career I only conduct trainings within my workplace field, I would eventually like to teach at the Postsecondary level and I find this information and the tools a great resource. However, using these tools takes consideration for the type of class or training being presented. Every tool has its own purpose and not every tool will work well for every class.
Intent My intent will be to make sure I research a technoloy tool prior to its use to make sure it fits the class or the needed purpose. In future courses that I might take, I will pay closer attention to the use of community collaboration and its uses. It is interesting how until a topic is brought up, one does not think about its use much....
Gerald Cabacungan
Module Two centered around the concept of learning through group collaboration in an online environment. The article by Hurst and Thomas provided recommendations on how to work as a team. The article by Palloff and Pratt (2005) listed the elements of effective online communities and the role of the instructor in those communities.
In my experience, the collaborative group environment has been the best method for me to learn new concepts. This method allows each member of the group to learn from each other's experiences. Often, I have been exposed to different perspectives that I had never thought about through group work. It also teaches the group members how to handle the group dynamics and social interactions in getting things done. The articles reaffirmed my positive experiences with group collaboration.
When given the opportunity to design my own classes in the future, I will incorporate group learning into the design. The intent will be to allow students to discuss topics with each other and uncover and critique different points of view and to give them experience in working as a team to get things done. In one writing assignment, I would have each student write a draft of a paper and have members of their group critique it on their Wikispaces board before final submission. In another assignment, I would have the group collaborate to create a PowerPoint presentation using Elluminate, Google docs, and any other online collaboration tool they choose, and assign brief in-progress reports to be submitted on a weekly basis to identify and solve any issues before the final submission of the project. These assignments will promote most of the elements of an effective online learning community, especially shared purpose, technology, and collaborative learning Palloff and Pratt (2005).
Ahmed Alshahrani
Description I have explored a good topic about the dynamic nature of online collaborating. This topic focuses on how to create online environment for students in the classroom, work at the work place, and in collaborative communities. Also, I read the articles by Hurst and Thomas, and The article by Palloff and Pratt. Impact After reading the article by Palloff & Pratt, I found that collaborate online courses will help the students to connect with others any time and any place, social presence for students will be better, and the students will have an opportunity to extend and deepen their learning experience. Also, from this article I learned how I could create effective collaboration activities in the classroom bay creating the environment, modeling the process, guiding the process, and evaluating the process. Another point I liked in this article is when authors say at the end “ the ways in which collaboration can be used online are limitless. ”I think today we have much recourse to create collaborative activities such as using technology. Today, many students around the world prefer to use technology in their learning. Thus, the teachers should use this way to attract the students to educations. Technologies can provide many ideas for the teachers to create many activities in the classroom such as a game or social networks.
Another point I learned from this model is how to develop the skills for the teamwork in the classroom. These skills include; developing a trusting environment between the students, listening for each other, questioning, persuading, respecting the different opinions, helping each other, participating during the discussion, and sharing. Thus, I think working like a team in and out of the classroom will improve the performance and the experience of students.
Intent After I explored this model, I will improve my skills for designing the collaboration activities in the online environment.Also, I will develop my student skills to working as team in the classroom.
Reeves – Mod2 Reflection
Working collaboratively online has taught me a whole new way to meet people and learn to work as a group. It puts a whole new meaning to remembering a face, but forgetting a name, well online, collaboration is just the opposite. I now remember names from many semesters ago, but rarely could I put a face with that name! Working together online in many ways is easier than f2f because it eliminates all of those first impressions. When I first started my undergraduate degree, most students (including myself) did not upload their picture to the discussion board, so basically, all you knew was if it was a man or a woman. We had all ventured out to take classes online so I figured we were brave, so let’s talk with one another and see what we can learn.
As the reading ‘Why Collaborate Online’ outlined, instructor participation is very important and has several ‘phases’ that instructors must go through for success. A well designed discussion board with different headings for each topic made participation much easier for me. Detailed instructions as to what is expected enable the student to start and finish the course and find it to be an enjoyable experience. The instructor making his/her presence known if only with a few words replying to a statement lets the learners know they are not just ‘out there’ by themselves and confirms if the class is going in the expected direction. Evaluation after each assignment is ideal if possible for it is a crucial guide for the students’ progress. It is necessary for students to know when they are hitting the mark and when they are not, or let them know what they can do differently the next time for better results.
When designing my courses, my goal will be to be a visible instructor so that I can ensure success.
Ben Dulin
Do you think that the research about "teachers teach how they have been taught” is true? How has this impacted your teaching and classroom? What changes will you have to make in your classrooms to embrace new types of learning for your 21st century students?
1. Description. “involves recalling your experiences such as class activities, textbook readings, and school involvement”
I have had a typical education in a country setting at a local public school. I was in the same school, Chippewa Local Schools, for my K-12 education. I graduated from High School and signed up for classes immediately at Wayne College, a branch of The University of Akron for the core classes. I dropped out after a year and a half because I wanted to serve in the Coast Guard but they did not accept me due to an injury I had in High School so I signed back up for classes and continued my classes at Wayne then Akron to become an Early Childhood Education teacher. I got a job with Nordonia City Schools teaching third grade and after a couple of years teaching I went back to The University of Akron to pursue my Master’s degree in Instructional Technology.
2. Impact. “You comment on what you learned from each experience”
I was taught by professionals who had a range of personalities and teaching styles. Upon reflection of my K-12 education, I can recall all of my teachers but a few. When I try to reflect on “What was their pedagogy at the time?” I am having difficulties. I do not think that it was too often shared with me and I therefore assumed that they were just following along in the text book curriculum as I was asked too. There are some teachers who stood out to me; some good and some not. My Kindergarten teacher was one of the nicest teachers I have had. She always made you feel welcomed and said nice things to you but had organization and purposeful tasks for us to do. I remember one of my third grade teachers was developing a math rap cassette at the time and she would let us listen to them in class. I did not think that it helped me with my math facts but I thought it was cool. We had a teacher in middle school that would walk out of the class when we were taking tests and leave the answer sheet on the desk. One of the “bad” girls in our class went up there and read out the answers. I didn’t want to cheat but I wasn’t going to leave an answer wrong.
Then high school…, I guess I have the most memories of pedagogy from high school since I had more teachers, I was older and more aware, and it was the most recent. My Dad was one of my teachers in high school and life and his materials seemed rough but his pedagogy was strong. He always modeled the Socratic Method; so much so, that it was annoying because he would never give you a plain answer. He was always requiring you to think out your thoughts and come to your own conclusions. I also remember a teacher who said I would not graduate unless I was in her plays. I thought she was joking but wasn’t sure so I signed up for her play a quiet and shy student and eventually became comfortable talking in front of people. I do not remember too much from her English class but I will not forget Shakespeare class, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” nor “Guys and Dolls.” Her pedagogy was a passion and love for what she was doing and it was contagious. She believed in you and became a second mother to many of us. You knew she was sacrificing time from her family to be at play practice with us.
I also had two teachers that gave me a hard time because I was a teacher’s son and they would point it out as frequent as possible. I think they may have been joking but I found it hurtful at the time and as a result didn’t care for them or the classes. I also had a teacher that had us watch “Roots” for almost half a year to teach us about American History (not the best pedagogy in my opinion). I also found myself in a situation my senior year to take Calculus or have no math class since I had already met the requirements to graduate. I chose to be in Calculus and learn as much as I could even though I did not do well in Advanced Math because as I saw it I wasn’t going to use it as a profession. My teacher told me to drop the course because she didn’t think I could pass it. I explained to her what my idea was and she saw no value in my plan. I stayed in the course, learned some Calculus, got a D, and still haven’t used it ever again as I expected.
Wayne College was small and personal like going to Chippewa for high school. My botany course was really hands on and project based which made that a lot of fun. Accounting was horrible for me and I was confused on why. I am a good mathematician and I saw numbers and problems I could not solve. I talked to the professor and his response was that Accounting is normally hard for students who are good at math. That was the extent of the conversation I continued to struggle and as a result dropped the course. After I came back to school from my hiatus with the Coast Guard, I decided to be a teacher and wanted to work with young students who may need a positive male role model. Courses were going well and I was for the first time in college actually enjoying the content I was learning in regards to the theorists and psychology behind the learning process. My professors were passionate about what they were teaching and the pedagogy in one word was hands-on. I was in Akron Public Schools working with students practicing what I was learning which gave the material so much more weight and value. We also collaborated a lot in small groups and worked on projects. There was one professor who gave me some trouble and almost made me drop out. She told one of my classmates that she did not think I should be an Elementary teacher since I was a male. Her class was graded subjectively and I received a C-. I asked if there was anything I could do to boost my grade and I was told no so I had to retake the course.
I was practicing at Nordonia when I was going back to school for my Master’s degree. I was the technology advocate for my building and was really enjoying that aspect of my job so I decided to get my Master’s degree in Instructional Technology. I enjoy the content so much that the pedagogy of the instructors is not that important because I am intrinsically motivated to learn the content. I would say that Dr. Ward and Dr. Tsai have the program set-up very well and I have enjoyed working with them over the past couple of years. I have had some courses face-to-face, online, and blended so the pedagogy and resources have been drastically different in some of my courses. Dr. Ward shared some insight into her pedagogy when she told me to read until you get it. I have always been told to read page 1-20 so when I was first in her course I tried to read everything and watch all of the videos and explore all of the hyperlinks and it was a ton of work. I asked her about it and she said that would be a lot of reading and that she puts multiple resources up there to help different people learn and that I as a learner need to read until I understand and then I know I am done.
3. Intent. “Your intent should include how and when you will do what you want to do”
The reflection question was, “Do you think that the research about "teachers teach how they have been taught” is true? How has this impacted your teaching and classroom? What changes will you have to make in your classrooms to embrace new types of learning for your 21st century students?” I have reflected about the way that my teachers impacted my learning and life and would conclude that, yes teachers teach how they have been taught. We are a collection of all of the influences in our lives; good and bad. As you can hear from my reflection personal relationships has always been key to me in my education. When I felt like I was wronged, I would give up or not care as much. As a result, I incorporate personal connections into my pedagogy because I truly feel like a student will work for you if they know you care about them. I will also remember to not leave during a test and not expect my students to cheat nor show a TV series in my class and expect the students to take me seriously. Delivery of the content is the most important aspect of teaching but it is not the only. A holistic approach to educating a child or adult is the best.
I will continue to try and establish a positive relationship with my students while incorporating technology and collaboration into my lessons. Like my English teacher from high school, my students will hopefully enjoy learning that much more when they can see my excitement for technology bleed through my lessons.
I have found the module 2 discussion on online collaboration to be fascinating. I do not have any teaching experience but as I go through the modules, I am realizing that there are so many exciting methods to utilize to establish collaboration within online courses. I thhink that the difficult part is determining the most effective technological tools. From the discussions it seems that Elluminate is a tool that has been widely used by many of the students. Skype is another tool that peaked my interest and I intend to explore how it is used. The discussion board has proven t obe a powerful way for students t ocollaborate, which is the primary tool we use in the course. I found the readings to put stresses on how important it is for students to explore their roles when completing projects whether they be research or business projects. These were the examples used in the readings. Wit hthe experiences I have had, and some of the students confirmed similar issues..are when engaged in collaboration projects online, there seems to always be students that do not fulfill their roles within the project which makes things dificult for the others involved.
how do instructor's plan for this type of situation when a student drops out of a class, or just refuses to do the work. I have found that is it up t othe students to safeguard themselves. Some sort of face t oface shoul occur before commencing the project. Each person needs to be upfront about his or her limitations and abilities to be flexible or inflexible. This is key in the event that someone has to take on additional roles while doing the project so that the project can bbe competed sucessfully. Outside of potential pitfalls, online collaboration is exciting and it is transcending the academic realm and the collaboration tools are being used in the work places as well as so many students have attested to. For me, the challenge and anxiety is choosing the web tools and incorporating them into a real online environment.
James Bell
I have been a teacher for the past eight years. During that time, I have varied my teaching methods from direct instruction and lecture to inquiry-based learning, to independent projects, depending on the student makeup, the subject, and the chapter material. Sometimes after a lesson I could say to myself “that really worked well,” and sometimes after a lesson I would say “whew, I really need to change that next time!” It’s often hard to gauge what students actually learned from a lesson.
I especially like the article in the module 2 readings by Hurst and Thomas, Developing Team Skills and Accomplishing Team Projects Online. In the article, several examples of online teamwork and collaboration online are shown in detail. The authors quote Shrank (1997) who says that real learning occurs when one is thrown into the mix and has to “make decisions, solve problems, make mistakes and have access to an expert.” The online learning environment is one where a person can do this, and the article really explains the protocols around creating an effective collaboration between individuals.
I think it would be fascinating to create courses where online collaboration occurs between students who live in different parts of the world! For my future science classes I will use tools such as skype to communicate with a partner school. For example, we do a section on biomes. In the past, I would teach it out of the book, then do some online research. I think a great approach would be to connect with a school in say, the Amazon rainforest, and share learning about our different parts of the world. These readings by Palloff and Pratt, by Hurst and Thomas provide great information on how to go about structuring effective teams of online learners.
Jerry
Taking classes online was very new to me when I had started my bachelor never thinking I would of made it into the graduate program, but here I am. Act times I do feel alone in the online community, I use the syllabus like it was my best friend. Almost all of my classes has had a discussion board, which guided me when I was confused about something, many times I thought that I was alone. The discussion board show me that I was not the only one having problems. The teacher or the other students was right there to help me, and I help them as well. I love working from the comfort of my home, rather it be in pajamas, I could work at anytime of the night as long as I wish.
My classes I have learned how to deepen my learning and have a better understanding from my online classes, teacher and peers. I never knew this was team learning until I read the article "Learning Together in Community". I did not realize how much we help each other in our learning experiences. I did understand and knew about the elements of community, I have done this in obtaining both of my degrees, but I did not know it had this special name. The readings have taught me how important it is to be a part of a team, in the online environment learning atmosphere. How to have a successful team by knowing what to expect out of each person, like the time frame for each individuals because everyone time is important. The aritcles for this module is definitly a keeper that I will use in my online teaching experiences in the future. I like the idea of the three things to keep the research fun and upbeat
Celebrate success, plan for interaction and communicate about other than just the projects I will use this in my classroom or maybe see if I can use this tacit at work.
Melissa
While reading "Why Teams Work in Online Learning" I realized there is alot more to online learning and teaching than what I know. The virtual reality team study sounded very interesting as it put students into a real world experience where they had to figure things out for themselves. I think this would be a great tool, although would not be relevant for every learner. I noticed throughout the article/chapter that there were a lot of references as to how they would structure the discussions and team work, and therefore a lot of direction given to the students. I think this is very important with online learning especially in group settings. Students need to know what is expected of them and what they will need to do in order to be successful. Working with a group can be difficult for some people so the more direction given, the easier it will be to figure out how the group will work together. Another thing that really stood out to me was the idea of trust in team members. I never realized how important trust is until I started reading this, but it is true. In order to work together and feel comfortable with your group members you do have to trust them. You have to know they will complete their part of the work and attend the meetings. Without this, one person may feel like they are carrying another which can cause resentment and ultimately lead to feelings of frustration. A group that cannot get along, will not be successful.
While reading "Learning Together in Community: Collaboration online" I realized yet another important aspect of teams in online classes, social presence. The article states that working online can be lonely and students can feel disconnected. To help with this teachers can bring students together as teams and allow them to get to know each other even though they are not face to face. The social aspect of any class is very important and can make a student feel more comfortable with attending classes and learning. If the students are not put into groups they may not have a chance to really get to know one another. In getting to know each other the students learn more from each other. The idea of social presence seems to be one of the more important aspects of online learning. Interesting concepts and ideas to keep in mind for the future.
Andrea
Hussain Alkhaliaf
Description
In this module I have read articles and some materials about the dynamic nature of online collaborating, peer and small group work.
Impact
When I was a teacher I tried to apply some teaching methods such as peer sharing and group work. I was trying to teach my students how to be collaborative team and I got good feedback. Honestly, I thought the collaborative team method only works with face-to- face classes. However, after reading the articles in this module and thinking about my situation as online learner, I found that I get every thing I need from my peers or my instructors. Moreover, I do believe that the online environment is very effective because students can connect in any place in any time. They will feel more responsible about their learning. Also, Learners can share their learning, thoughts and ideas. In fact, the new tools of technology help learners to be more effective and collaborative because most online environment tools are designed to meet most learners’ needs. For example, using Elluminate allowed students to chat, talk and share files. They can attend in public or private room any time and it is free.
Intent
In the future, I will improve my students’ skills to be a collaborative worker and absolutely I will integrate the new online environments in my classroom. I will take advantage from these online environments to improve their learning.
Julia L. Cutler
Description
In this module the focus was online collaboration. It is easy for a student to feel all alone when taking an online class and it’s important for instructors to create a feeling of community among students enrolled in the course.
Impact
After reading the article by Palloff & Pratt, I realized that it is my responsibility to create the online community for my students to engage in. The authors state, “…the instructor is responsible for creating the container through which it can happen effectively” (pg. 2). I had always done an online “ice breaker” at the beginning of the semester where each student introduced themselves on a discussion board but that’s as far as any type of discussion board went. After reading through the articles in this module, I realize that the use of discussion boards can go much farther in the courses that I am teaching. There are many times when students are struggling with something and they don’t have access to me or a computer lab on campus to get help. I think that discussion board usage for each unit that we cover will be a huge help. This will allow the more experienced student to help the student that is having problems which in turn enhances learning for both students.
Intent
My plan for the future is to set up discussion boards for each unit. I am going to require that each student post something about that week’s lesson whether it be something new that they discovered or something that they had a problem with. This will open up discussion about the material covered and the students can learn from one another.
Marlean Ames
Description
This module had a focus on collaberative work/learning introducing various online tools and the use of technology which can be used and applied when presenting information to learners as well as used in a way to bring an otherwise non f2f class together. Students listed a variety of tools on the discussion board that they were aware of or have used which turned out to be very informative. In review of the discussion board, it appears all classmates have had some experience with this type of tool. Some experiences by students were not quite as good as others at times. We we also afforded the opportunity to review some articles which also helped to spell out the uses of online collaboration for both the instructor and learner.
Impact
The impact of this module for me was it gave me the opportunity to focus on building collaboration in classes. Being able to see the huge range of tools will certainly work in the future when planning courses or trainings of my own. Reading about the impact collaborative learning and work has on the students/learners and the value it can add to online/blended learning was great. Although at this point in my career I only conduct trainings within my workplace field, I would eventually like to teach at the Postsecondary level and I find this information and the tools a great resource. However, using these tools takes consideration for the type of class or training being presented. Every tool has its own purpose and not every tool will work well for every class.
Intent
My intent will be to make sure I research a technoloy tool prior to its use to make sure it fits the class or the needed purpose. In future courses that I might take, I will pay closer attention to the use of community collaboration and its uses. It is interesting how until a topic is brought up, one does not think about its use much....
Gerald Cabacungan
Module Two centered around the concept of learning through group collaboration in an online environment. The article by Hurst and Thomas provided recommendations on how to work as a team. The article by Palloff and Pratt (2005) listed the elements of effective online communities and the role of the instructor in those communities.
In my experience, the collaborative group environment has been the best method for me to learn new concepts. This method allows each member of the group to learn from each other's experiences. Often, I have been exposed to different perspectives that I had never thought about through group work. It also teaches the group members how to handle the group dynamics and social interactions in getting things done. The articles reaffirmed my positive experiences with group collaboration.
When given the opportunity to design my own classes in the future, I will incorporate group learning into the design. The intent will be to allow students to discuss topics with each other and uncover and critique different points of view and to give them experience in working as a team to get things done. In one writing assignment, I would have each student write a draft of a paper and have members of their group critique it on their Wikispaces board before final submission. In another assignment, I would have the group collaborate to create a PowerPoint presentation using Elluminate, Google docs, and any other online collaboration tool they choose, and assign brief in-progress reports to be submitted on a weekly basis to identify and solve any issues before the final submission of the project. These assignments will promote most of the elements of an effective online learning community, especially shared purpose, technology, and collaborative learning Palloff and Pratt (2005).
Ahmed Alshahrani
Description
I have explored a good topic about the dynamic nature of online collaborating. This topic focuses on how to create online environment for students in the classroom, work at the work place, and in collaborative communities. Also, I read the articles by Hurst and Thomas, and The article by Palloff and Pratt.
Impact
After reading the article by Palloff & Pratt, I found that collaborate online courses will help the students to connect with others any time and any place, social presence for students will be better, and the students will have an opportunity to extend and deepen their learning experience. Also, from this article I learned how I could create effective collaboration activities in the classroom bay creating the environment, modeling the process, guiding the process, and evaluating the process. Another point I liked in this article is when authors say at the end “ the ways in which collaboration can be used online are limitless. ”I think today we have much recourse to create collaborative activities such as using technology. Today, many students around the world prefer to use technology in their learning. Thus, the teachers should use this way to attract the students to educations. Technologies can provide many ideas for the teachers to create many activities in the classroom such as a game or social networks.
Another point I learned from this model is how to develop the skills for the teamwork in the classroom. These skills include; developing a trusting environment between the students, listening for each other, questioning, persuading, respecting the different opinions, helping each other, participating during the discussion, and sharing. Thus, I think working like a team in and out of the classroom will improve the performance and the experience of students.
Intent
After I explored this model, I will improve my skills for designing the collaboration activities in the online environment.Also, I will develop my student skills to working as team in the classroom.
Reeves – Mod2 Reflection
Working collaboratively online has taught me a whole new way to meet people and learn to work as a group. It puts a whole new meaning to remembering a face, but forgetting a name, well online, collaboration is just the opposite. I now remember names from many semesters ago, but rarely could I put a face with that name! Working together online in many ways is easier than f2f because it eliminates all of those first impressions. When I first started my undergraduate degree, most students (including myself) did not upload their picture to the discussion board, so basically, all you knew was if it was a man or a woman. We had all ventured out to take classes online so I figured we were brave, so let’s talk with one another and see what we can learn.
As the reading ‘Why Collaborate Online’ outlined, instructor participation is very important and has several ‘phases’ that instructors must go through for success. A well designed discussion board with different headings for each topic made participation much easier for me. Detailed instructions as to what is expected enable the student to start and finish the course and find it to be an enjoyable experience. The instructor making his/her presence known if only with a few words replying to a statement lets the learners know they are not just ‘out there’ by themselves and confirms if the class is going in the expected direction. Evaluation after each assignment is ideal if possible for it is a crucial guide for the students’ progress. It is necessary for students to know when they are hitting the mark and when they are not, or let them know what they can do differently the next time for better results.
When designing my courses, my goal will be to be a visible instructor so that I can ensure success.